T-Mobile's iPhone 5S Promotion Throws BlackBerry Under the Bus

With friends like T-Mobile, who needs enemies? That pretty much sums up how BlackBerry felt after T-Mobile sent an email to customers encouraging them to switch to Apple's iPhone 5S. What really set the Canadian handset maker off, however, was T-Mobile calling its $0 down promotion on iPhone 5S smartphones a "great offer for BlackBerry customers." Hello oncoming bus, meet BlackBerry.

John Chen, BlackBerry's new sheriff in charge, didn't take kindly to the promotion, saying in a blog post that he was "outraged" by T-Mobile's behavior

"Late last week, T-Mobile emailed an offer targeting BlackBerry users on its network asking them to switch their BlackBerry devices to a competitor’s smartphone... I can assure you that we are outraged too," Chen said. "What puzzles me more is that T-Mobile did not speak with us before or after they launched this clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion."

Some BlackBerry's customers felt slighted by the promotion as well and took to Twitter to voice their displeasure. All the complaints didn't fall on deaf ears -- T-Mobile reiterated in a statement that it still carries BlackBerry phones and "as an additional courtesy to our BlackBerry customers, we will begin offering free expedited shipping of BlackBerry devices by Friday." T-Mobile also apologized for the "confusion."